100 Themes Challenge
by Spencer Quinn
Summary: Oh the many 100 theme challenge stories I've read in my time here. Now I thought I'd have a go at one [just because I can't think of anything else to write about at the moment] I won't be continuing my "Code of the Bunyip Keepers" story as this one is set more along the lines of it. OC WARNING! If you don't like then don't read, alright? Anyway Enjoy! ;)
1. Introduction

**Introductions**

_Oh this was probably the greatest idea of the year! _

_Irony, oh the irony, it's horrible!_

**Me:** Hello all! This is Spencer Quinn with a whole new story! And I'm telling myself that this was the greatest idea of the year (thus far) because I've started the 100 themes challenge!

**Vite: **You are such an idiot!

**Sly:** You can talk Lispy!

**Plat:** Don't mind us, everybody. ^^; Vite and Sly are just in their own little world right now. And I'm the one stuck with trying to stop it. _

**Me:** Why aren't you guys at Bush Rescue? Anyway! As you can tell, I picked the Ty fandom again because the games are awesome and I loved them a lot as a kid. So I did the challenge on this, also because this fandom needs more stories. Plus I don't know what else to write about so I thought I'd try this.

**Tell the girl how she's doing with this story and you will get a special prize...**

**"Self satisfaction and a good story to go with it [not credits in NCEA Level 2]."**

**Hope you enjoy this little collection of stories! ;)**


	2. Love

**Love**

It was a nice, quiet evening in New Burramudgee. A few weeks ago, the Bush Rescue Team had celebrated the defeat of the Quinking by rebuilding the Bush Rescue HQ on the south side of New Burramudgee. It was quite an event—considering that it caused most of the team to migrate from their current homes to live at the HQ because of the disasters left over from the result of the Quinkan attack. There were jobs set for them all non-stop, plenty to go round maybe more than three times!

Ty and Shazza decided to move in if it was closer to home. Sly had to move out of his shack because he was too far away and he didn't exactly have any other option since he was working in the field with Ty. Ridge, seeing as he was now working in the field with the others full-time, chose to move in.

So, with a little motivation, stress and excitement, the team was now residing at Bush Rescue HQ—Ty, Shazza, Sly, Ridge, Maurie, Julius, Naomi, Ranger Ken, Dennis—everyone who worked full-time or set the team out on the jobs.

Ty looked out the hangar door to see the rays of the sun disappearing over the clifftops, painting the sky all shades of purple and indigo and orange. The evenings were always cool and relaxing. There wasn't any hassle in the evenings, and for a few hours at least he felt like a normal person, not just a hero with the weight of whole world sitting heavily on his shoulders.

But he knew it wasn't just him trying to keep it up.

Everyone in Bush Rescue was pitching in to keep it in its stable orbit. The five new members had Currawong to look after before they came to New Burramudgee so they knew what it was like to keep the town stable.

The Demon Eye Resistance—Mikey, Plat, Vite, Terra and Wings—had to abandon their occupation because of the lack of members: just the five of them. And Currawong had a much better chance of protection from the Quinkan now since their numbers were lessening, so they decided to look for work elsewhere.

Ty knew that whatever they did was an act of love for the things they do. He could tell, by the way the five eagerly agreed to join Bush Rescue, that they loved protecting people from the forces of evil. What adventure-loving person wouldn't, though? They do get a big adventure out of it, after all. That was good enough. It may have also been because people they hadn't seen in years were working there too.

They were all here—Vite was Ty and Sly's cousin, Terra was Shazza and Naomi's cousin, Plat was Ridge's sister, Wings was Maurie's grandson and Mikey was Ken's nephew.

They hadn't seen each other ever since Cass sent the Tasmanian Tigers to the Dreaming.

Ty shook his head. He did miss Vite and the times he and Sly had with him.

_**Flashback**_—_**18 years ago**_  
_It was night time now_—_stars were shining brightly as most of them arched across the night sky, the backyard of the Bilby Family's ranch was rather quiet tonight; aside from the chirping crickets, the rush of water from the waterfalls that surrounded the area, and __the occasional chatter of three Tasmanian Tigers who were running over to the giant eucalyptus tree._

_Four year olds, Ty and Vite, scurried over to the tree and started to scale up to the different levels of it_—_Vite perched on one branch, Ty sitting on the rope bridge which acted like an automatic hammock__. Five year old Sly kept his feet planted on the ground, laid back on the grass, back lying against the tree's base, and then he pointed up at the sky. A flash of light arched across the midnight sky. _

_"Shooting star!" he exclaimed. He was going to have his try on a wish but, once again, his cousin just had to steal that chance. _

_"I wiss I could twavel awound Shouthern Wiversh," Vite said. Even then, the lisp seemed to irritate Sly, because now he was cringing and his ears flattened in annoyance. _

_"I spotted it first," he muttered, crossing his arms in disappointment. That was the fifth wish Vite had stolen off him that night. _

_"Sho, what were you going to wiss for, Shly?" _

_"Look there's another one!" Ty shouted as another light shot across the sky. He clasped his hands together and clenched his eyes shut. Vite and Sly looked at him eagerly_—_it seemed whenever Ty made a wish like that, things take a turn for the better. _

_"What'd ya wiss for?" Vite asked, irritating the eldest again. The orange tiger just smiled innocently and watched the sky again. He never did tell the wishes he made to his brother or cousin. This didn't really bother them, considering that if they told the wishes out loud, then it won't come true. _

_Sly smirked at the theory. "Your wish isn't gonna come true, Vite, you said yours out loud."_

_Vite was about to say something smug back to him, but then he began to calculate his math and facepalmed. "Blimey, evewytime!" _

_**End of Flashback**_

Those were some good times then.

A pink head of hair suddenly came running past Ty, snapping him out of his flashback, just as he was stepping out of the HQ. It was Terra, one of the newest and the youngest of the entire Bush Rescue Team. She came to a stop and held a clipboard in front of her face.

"Hear me, hear me! Attention all Bush Rescuers! On our agenda tonight: we've got crocodile hunting along with a little musical jig later, featuring yours truely and a tiger with weird eyes who plays saxophone—whatever the heck _that_ is. Anyway, it looks like a good night tonight. Hi, Mr Possum," she announced with a wave to the gold tiger before walking off.

They were only here for 4 hours and she was acting like she knew the place like the back of her hand.

The gold tiger felt a grin crawl onto his face. Yeah, he would learn to love having these guys in his team.

...

**Hello all! Hope you liked the chappie. **

**"This is just going to be an alternate plotline to my **_**Code of the Bunyip Keepers**_** story," I decided, "since I have a writer's block for that story as well as a few of my other stories." **

**I don't think this story is going to contain short stories...I can't write short stories. Sorry. -_-'**

**Anyway...**

**This has been the second theme of the 100 Themes Challenge—stay tuned for more! See you next time! **


	3. Light

**Light**

Well, it was still light-out. Sly was cherishing his moment of solitude for as long as he could.

Nobody was actually doing anything important at the moment. Ken and Mikey were preparing for the crocodile hunting that was on the agenda for tonight, which Terra was currently announcing to the team, Plat and Ridge were busy having some kind of boomerang battle, Maurie was snoozing on the sofa, Dennis was cooking something with Naomi and Ty was chatting with Shazza and Wings.

That left him in the HQ, sitting at the table, darkening the outlines of one of his many sketches. Unfortunately for him, the moment of peace and quiet was cut short as a green eye and a brown eye peeked around the corner. The rusty tiger shook his head in annoyance.

"Hey Vite," he greeted, not taking his eyes off the drawing he was working on. He started smirking as the younger tiger stepped out with a disappointed look on his face. "You need to learn how to be more discrete."

"Aw, shut it, cuz!" Vite said, a grin only barely plastering itself across his face. "I thought I'd get you that time."

"And why do you think you didn't?"

"'Cos Sneath and Keith must've sharpened your instincts more than before. How's _that_ for discrete?"

A Deadlyrang flew for his head and hit him square in the temple, knocking him over temporarily. Vite groaned, rubbing the side of his head. "Keep working on it, mate," Sly replied with a casual grin.

It was _just_ like old times! Except the materials that their rangs were made of now weren't cheap pieces of bark ripped off an old oak tree—improvisation had paid off for once—and Vite had lost his lisp and was more confident than he was when they were kids.

"It's still light-out, whaddya doing in here?" Vite asked.

Sly looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "Drawing," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The dark gold tiger's eyes suddenly lit up—he enjoyed drawing about as much as Sly did.

"Are you still good at drawing? I remember this one you gave me for my sixth." He held up a weathering piece of paper, but you could still see the faded colors of the subject. Sly stared at him in shock.

"You kept it?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I? You went missing two days after Ty's birthday, and this was the only thing I actually had to remember you."

Who would've guessed that statement would bring a lump into the ruddy tiger's throat? Vite saw the change in expression on his cousin's face after he'd said that and instantly realized that he'd hit a rather touchy subject. "Sly?" he asked, suddenly serious and losing his smile. "What happened when you were seven?"

"I..." Sly couldn't speak—he'd never talked about what happened when he hit seven years old, and he didn't want to either. "...I'll tell you later," he said with a ragged sigh.

Not what Vite was willing to hear, but he just shrugged nonetheless and tried to move over to a lighter topic till then. "So, ready for tonight? Going Crocodile hunting, and Terra and I are doing a musical gig."

That made his elder cheer up. "Yes. Question: when did you get into playing saxophone?" he asked, cringing slightly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. I took that up two years ago."

"He's horrible, by the way, Rusty," Terra's voice said from the entrance of the HQ. Sly and Vite looked up from the table they were sitting at to see her standing there, leaning against the frame and twisting a strand of rosy pink hair against the shoulder of her blue jacket.

"Quite the charmer, aren't ya?"

"What's up? Can't handle the truth?" the dingo chuckled. Everyone knew she was joking around but, again, another statement that led to a sensitive subject that Sly wasn't able to bear. He dumped the pencil and sketchpad—unaware of what he'd drawn—on the table and excused himself with a heavy, tired expression. Terra suddenly quietened, alarmed by the elder's reaction.

"What'd I say?" she asked the tiger with the mismatched eyes, anxious that she caused the change in mood. Vite shrugged and picked up the sketchpad, observing the picture. His eyes widened in shock at what he saw.

"Aw, blimey, Sly..."

...

Sly sat down outside the observatory, looking up at the different shades the sky was turning—shades of pink, purple, blue—with the few occasional stars just beginning to appear. He needed to clear his head before he was sure he'd have a nervous breakdown—the past is the past, but he could never forget what had happened. The air was beginning to get cooler and that put a faulter in his panic.

"Sly?" Vite's voice called from a distance. Sly turned his head to see his cousin making his way up the hill.

"Up here," he said, turning back to look at the sky.

"Oh," the dark gold tiger said, trudging up the hill so he was now standing beside his older cousin, looking down on him.

"What is it?" Sly croaked, clearing his throat as best he could.

A surge of worry pulsed through Vite. He held up the sketchpad his cousin had left behind. "Why didn't you tell us you were hurt as a kid?"

"W-What?" Sly was shocked to say the least. How did he know that? He grabbed the sketchpad and looked at the picture he'd drawn before. Sure enough, it was a picture of a group of frills making fun of a young Tasmanian Tiger who was crying and had a long gash on the side of his head. His ears flattened in embarrassment.

"I-It was hard, sometimes, as a kid, a-and I was under Cass' order...th-the lizards, they—" He started choking on his words and he was finding it hard to breathe so buried his face in his arms. "...sorry, cuz."

"No no, don't be sorry, Sly. I'm the one who should be sorry. If you'd told us about what had happened to you, we would've stopped talking about it. And besides, it's good to see that you're opening up to me—you never did that as a kid."

Sly blinked back the tears he'd been holding back. "Really?"

"Your biggest downfall, really, is your independence. So this—" He held up the sketchpad "—is an improvement. You're getting those few steps closer to coming out of your shell. And besides, those lizards can't get you now—not a chance in hell—not while me and Ty and the rest of Bush Rescue are here." Vite put an arm around his shoulders, causing the ruddy tiger to smile slightly. "So," the dark gold tiger said, standing up and grinning. "Now that we've gotten that off our chest, we better get back down there. I think it's getting dark now."

"Lead the way, cuz."

Well, now Sly knew he would have someone to talk to and bring him back into the light.

...

**Aww! Sorry, had to do it! Family matters! ^u^**

**YAY! PEOPLE ARE LIKING THIS STORY [and I was worried that they wouldn't]! I found 4 reviews! Thanks for the reviews, keep 'em coming! ;)**

**This has been the third theme for the 100 Themes Challenge—stay tuned for more!**


	4. Dark

**Dark**

And now it was full darkness with only the moon and the lights of the Fourbie to lead the way. Shazza had driven the Fourbie out to Dead Dingo Marsh, which happened to be carrying all the equipment that Ranger Ken and Mikey had packed, and this left the others who wanted to go crocodile hunting—Ty, Vite, Ridge, Plat, Terra and Ken—walking alongside it, using it as a guide as it made its way into the area they were going crocodile hunting.

"Okay, we're there, Shaz, you can stop now!" the older Tasmanian Devil announced. The fourbie stopped in its motion and the headlights switched off. Shazza jumped out and stood in between Ty and Terra.

Ridge looked at his little sister as she grabbed the first torch on the pile of equipment, so eagerly that she ended up throwing most of them off. The darker tiger shook his head, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, bro, we have some _serious_ catching up to do," Plat said, holding up the torch and shining it at her brother, who squinted into the light and shielded his eyes. Ridge sighed.

"Do we just, sis? It's been...what? Only 17 and a half years since we last saw each other," he responded, dryly, grabbing a torch off the ground.

Terra smirked. "You know that makes you guys sound really old, right?" she blurted out. "_I'm_ not even 17 yet!"

"You got three years ahead of ya before that happens, Tez," Ken chuckled, walking up to them. He shone his torch into the brush. "Come on, all, let's get in there."

"Yes, oh _fearless_ leader," Vite said, saluting feebly and marching forward—torch and rang in hand. He sauntered forward, following the Tasmanian Devil into the brush. Ridge stared at Ty with a look of apprehension, hitting the side of his torch.

"Hey Tiger, did somebody remember to put batteries in the torches?" he inquired, frowning a little when he saw the light of his torch was a little dim.

The orange tiger scratched his head, noticing the exact same thing with his torch. "I asked Dennis if he could change the batteries last night...they should be fine." He then shrugged and walked into the brush. The dark grey tiger held his hands out, then threw them to his sides shaking his head and continuing into the brush. Thankfully, this time, the ones up front had left a mud track for them to follow so that was one less hassle to worry about.

Terra followed closely behind Vite, who was currently bragging how he would be able to catch a croc with his eyes blindfolded. "Honestly, Tez. There's _no_ way I'm letting some reptile tell me what to do."

"Uh, it's a croc, Vite. I don't think it can talk yet."

"_Yet._ So it _does_ plan to talk at some stage!"

The pink haired dingo shook her head in annoyance and looked at something in the middle distance. "Hey, look!" she exclaimed to her friend.

"What?!" he exclaimed, seeming somewhat excited now, eyes darting in different directions.

"A distraction!" Terra laughed before disappearing into the rough terrain. The elder sighed.

"Blimey, everytime." And just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, a croc came jumping out of nowhere and threatening to chomp down on his ankle, had he not reacted by screaming at it and throwing one of his rangs at it, knocking it out.

"That's what you get for messin' with me!" Just then, his torch decided to die on him, leaving him in the total dark. This started to unnerve Vite and he freaked out—he hated the complete darkness.

_Somebody forgot the batteries for the torches!_ He made a half-hearted attempt to step forward, trying his best not to trip up and fall flat on his face into the marsh.

"Okay, I'm kind of flying _blind_ here, guys!" Vite announced at the fifteen minute mark. His ear twitched as he heard a grunt behind him and he freaked out. "GAH! CROC!" he shrieked. He threw his rang at the figure scurrying towards him and was surprised to hear a yelp that sounded familiar.

"Ow!" Ridge shouted, rubbing his head. Then the rang came around again and hit the person next to him.

"HEY! Watch it, Lispy!" Plat demanded, rubbing her shoulder and lifting her torch up. She saw that his wasn't on but ignored it for the time being. "Boomerangs kinda go _round_ and hit a little _more_ than one target, ya drongo!"

Vite sweatdropped and rubbed the back of his head, anxiously. "I knew that, Plat."

"Sure you did."

There was another rustle and now all three tigers were on edge. Ridge raised one of his rangs cautiously.

"Uh, cuz?" Vite asked, hoping to hear Ty's voice answer back. All he got in return as an answer was another rustle much louder than before.

"Tez, if that's you, this isn't funny!" Plat shouted. The rustling got louder and she began to feel more scared.

The figure lurched forward, making the trio flinch back. But they all groaned when they saw the figure wasn't in fact a croc or Terra, but happened to be a certain Gooboo Berry scented gooboosaurus, holding a torch which was beginning to spread light across the confined area.

"Falterdan, little furry dinosaurs."

"Oh, I've seen you somewhere before, mate," Vite said. "Mr. Gooboo Steve, right?"

Steve nodded stupidly, bringing out a big juicy-looking purple berry. "Wanna Gooboo berry?" he asked.

"Er..." Plat said, scratching her head. But as not to offend... "Sure, why not?" she said, taking it with an awkward smile.

"You're not one of THEM, are you?"

"I think we've cleared this before, Steve, we're _not_ a trio of Quinkan," Ridge said, crossing his arms. If there was one thing the dark tiger had, it was a short fuse and not enough patience to smoulder it.

"No no, not them. They went kaboom with the guy who did stupid things. I'm talking 'bout this guy who knew this guy who wanted to take over the planet."

Plat looked at Vite with a strange expression on her face. The gold tiger looked over at Ridge, who looked a little suspicious at the moment.

"I don't think its you—you're too small, and the first guy was tall. And had a big head. I have something you might like. I dug them up with my Gooboo Berries this morning. You can have them!" the gooboosaurus announced, handing two Bunyip Stones to the eldest tiger, who was looking at the place where Steve was previously standing.

The cream tigress flinched again. "Ah, where'd he go?"

"Hey! Come on you lot! We've been looking all over for you guys!" Ken's voice shouted. Everyone was now making their way back to the Fourbie. Of course, due to a shortage of fresh batteries, the crocodile hunt was nothing more than bupkus. So they retreated and drove back to Burramudgee.

Something was still bothering Ridge, Plat and Vite. _What did Steve mean by 'them' this time?_

...

Now they were all back at Bush Rescue, sitting in front of a blazing campfire. They were listening to Terra playing the guitar and Vite singing "Billionaire" while roasting marshmalllows over the fire. Wings had done pretty well lighting the fire, but he had a problem with his marshmallows—they'd decided to catch on fire, causing him to panic and fling them at Mikey, who happened to be the closest person near him. And they landed on the Tasmanian Devil's blue jacket. It didn't catch fire, there was just a sticky glob of melted marshmallow smack-dab in the middle of his sleeve. Everyone just sat away from him for a while.

_#Oh everytime I close my eyes_  
_I see my name in shining lights, yeah_  
_A different city every night_  
_Oh I, I swear_  
_The world better prepare_  
_For when I'm a billionaire.#_

"Any news? You three in particular have been rather quiet," Maurie stated after Vite had finished singing the song, directing his gaze at Plat's group.

Ridge shifted his gaze from one person to the other. "Oh, nothing, really. Just a second encounter with a Quinkan Expert," he said rather casually, even though the issue was more than huge.

"Something's going to happen, I can feel it," Vite said, shoving his smore in his mouth, not wanting to talk anymore.

"And you caught onto everything he was saying?" Plat asked.

"I hope you lot learned an important lesson during your hunting trip!" Dennis said, waving his finger around.

"Yeah! Never to go crocodile hunting for koalas that jump on Thylacine," Ty answered around a mouthful of smore.

"Just so long as we don't do it in the dark," Plat butted in.

"With flat batteries," Ridge added, smirking as he leaned back against the wall.

...

**Just wanted to put something funny into the story, considering the last theme. **

**Thanks to everyone who have been reviewing! Really appreciated! XD**

**This has been the fourth theme of the 100 Themes Challenge—stay tuned for more!**


	5. Seeking Solace

**Seeking Solace**

Working at Bush Rescue, as you may have guessed so far, has its ups and downs. But then one thing leads to another and suddenly the weight of the world is sitting heavily on your shoulders. Everything just becomes too much to handle, sometimes, and it usually ends with your stress levels reaching an all-time high.

Somehow, Ty got himself stuck in the middle of that position today. He had gone out on a mission with Wings and Terra, babysitting them while Plat and Ridge did their list of missions. They were fine but juggling the task of keeping them both safe with trying to complete a mission? Honestly, it was enough to make the gold tiger's stress levels work overtime and bust.

The mission: to stop a barrage of frills from attacking Min Min Mining Site. Why would they attack a mine of rocks?

"Maybe they're after a sort of ore that's in some of the cliff walls," Wings said.

"Copper. Has to be copper," Terra said. "Because if anything decides it wants to explode, the cliff walls keep it in like it's a copper pot. No chemicals will get out."

"Then you lot better hurry before they take down the whole mine," Maurie said.

The three nodded and hurried over to the Fourbie. After ten minutes, they'd reached the mine…only to reach a place they hardly recognized. There were frills everywhere drilling into the walls, hacking chunks of rock off the cliffs, practically destroying the entire mining area. Ty groaned and got ready for action, so did Terra and Wings. Terra turned down the volume on this device and the gold tiger thought it would be an mp3. She wasn't wearing headphones though, which was weird. Anyway, as soon as she put the device away, the three sprang into action, stopping the frills from doing any wide-ranging damage to the mine.

Why couldn't they find something better to do?

However, it wasn't just them that was pestering him.

This issue had been bothering him since he first defeated Cass—the official title of 'Hero.' Ty just didn't feel like much of a hero, but of course everyone tried to convince him that he was in fact a hero.

He'd saved numerous towns all over Southern Rivers, countless lives—several he'd never even met, in addition to that—and even stopping Boss Cass from taking over Southern Rivers. Still, valor comes with a cost. It's like walking into a store; you can't just take things regardless, you essentially _need_ to pay for it—mainly for your own good and the good of others.

Because the gold tiger had taken out his nemesis when he tried to take the Bunyip Talismans, the police had to trial his brother. And he was _so_ close to getting Sly back, too. When the enemy of the whole of Southern Rivers—the Quinking—was destroyed, there was meant to be two victims, and that second place was meant for Ty. Fluffy, Cass's longstanding superior who had finally seen the light, paid the ultimate price by taking the hero's place.

This was why he never truly felt like a hero—he would always lose something.

As the Fourbie pulled up to the gates of Burramudgee, Ty sighed jadedly as he dawdled through the gates and the three made their ways over to the Bush Rescue HQ. Terra looked a little concerned by this and started chatting to Wings about it. But they didn't use material words.

For the first half of her life, Terra had actually never heard a single sound. The resistance found this out when she was three and they pledged as a team to find a way to help her hear. Luckily Wings, invented a special pair of hearing aids for her to finally hear—though it meant for the poor girl to go to the hospital to get them surgically attached to her brain. During this time the team had learned sign language to speak to her, which was really helpful when they needed to communicate to each other when they were in deep trouble.

"Is it just me or do you think he's a little…" Terra signed, in so many hand-movements that nobody else but her friends would be able to translate. Then she scratched her head and flicked her fingers out from her palm. "…stressed."

Wings nodded. "Yeah…" Suddenly he was moving his hands and arms about as quickly as his friend was, signaling "Maybe it was something we did?"

Terra pulled a face, one that could only mean doubt. "I hope not."

Ty had turned back to the two adolescents, wondering why they were so silent, and saw them moving their hands around. "You two okay?"

"Oh yeah, sorry, Mr. Possum," the pink-haired dingo said out loud, almost overlooking that she could actually talk now.

"What're you doing?"

The two friends looked at each other, and the younger one nodded. "Terra was born completely deaf, and she stayed like that till she was seven when I made her these hearing aids," Wings explained.

"What?" the gold tiger said in surprise. He'd never heard this about her before, nor had he expected it. That was probably what the device she had at the mines was used for, she didn't want to hear the loud noises of the battle they were in.

"Oh, well, it's quite a tale, believe you me," Terra said with a grin. "The deafness has been in our family history for _ages!_ It skips over 5 generations—that being said, Shazza and Naomi are really lucky they weren't the ones who would've ended up deaf. Amazing, right? They are spared by the family problem and I get it instead…then again, they have a disadvantage, they can't not hear."

The story that followed made Ty completely forget about the stress that was messing up his brain—that Terra probably had to go through more than he realized. Since she wasn't able to hear, people thought she was bizarre for the reason that she couldn't talk or listen to what everyone around her were saying. Not that she could complain to them without them understanding.

He knew that he wasn't the only one with problems now, and that there was always going to be someone there when he was seeking solace.

…

**Oh my **_**GOD!**_** This one was actually really hard to write about. And yes, Tez has problems with hearing, the poor girl. I pity her, really. **

**Thanks to Shiny Raichu for being my #1 reviewer! **

**Wings: Here, have a cookie. :)**

**This has been the fifth theme of the 100 Themes Challenge****—stay tuned for more!**


	6. Break Away

**Break Away**

_He always does this_—_why does he always __**do**__ this!?_ Vite thought, practically losing his mind over one particular subject...

Sly broke away from the group, and he got more than one hammering in return from an army of frills.

He was in the hospital now, but Vite couldn't help but simply worry for his cousin, considering that his past was most likely nothing but hurt and grief. The past was coming back to haunt him like a ghost.

…

It was planned out as a normal day today—aside from the random frill lizard and blue tongues.

The blue tongues weren't really much of a disturbance—all you needed to remember was five things:

Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge anything they throw at you. Two shots with a rang and they're out for the count. They fall hard too. Basic routine; they only do so little in return.

The frills on the other hand…

Vite scowled at the mere thought of them. The frills were a little more mischievous than the blue tongues—if you're not fast enough with your rangs then only problems are going to follow. Hit them fast before they decide to play their "games" and get you from behind. Instant K.O!

Since it rained during the weekend and there's only slight chances of patchy sunshine today, the ground was still sort of muddy, slippery, wet and smelled of fresh cow pats and drying mangroves. This made the hike to the location more difficult. Their only advantage was the mud covers your scent and the cold lowers your heat signature so they can't smell you or know you're nearby.

You'd be surprised by their sense of smell. First time Ridge was in the field, he'd scratched his arm. Small scratch, but even still, it was enough for two frills from ten meters away to catch onto the smell of warm blood.

This time, however, the frills must have been prepared for someone to bushwhack them. They learn—that was Bush Rescue's only hindrance. They learn.

Sly's habits got the better of him again—usual routine: go into battle, spot a trail of frills darting across the bluff about to ambush the team, the ruddy tiger goes and follows them. It couldn't be any easier!

That was until his instincts had to kick in at the last second.

…

Ty and the rest of Bush Rescue's field recruits were battling it out at the bottom of the cliff against a wave of frills when suddenly Vite heard a scream trail through the battle. It wasn't just any ordinary scream, it was an unusual cry of agony.

"Sly?" he mouthed. He locked eyes with Ty, who looked at him in uneasiness. He turned on his heel and charged in the direction he saw his cousin take off, who was now already at the scene of the crime.

Vite saw something he thought was an exact replica of his nightmares. Sly was curled up on the ground while the frills that had ambushed him struck him down—three, four, _five_ frills at most.

The dusty gold tiger was able to analyze any trivial injuries his cousin had obtained—really it wasn't many: a couple of scratches, bruises—if only he weren't curled up on the ground at the moment so he could examine any foremost injuries. He needed to get to him. So, he threw his rangs at an incredible speed that the frills couldn't even handle. As the last frill fell down, he rushed over to his counterpart.

"Sly, you okay?" Vite asked, propping up the older tiger.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine," Sly croaked. Now he could evaluate any other injuries. It was when Vite was in the middle of scouring that they both saw the splitting puncture in his right wrist, spouting blood like he had masses of the stuff to spare—which wasn't true even if he wished it was. The blood had already pooled out into a small puddle. Mixed emotions were going on at the moment; Sly was to some extent unnerved that his wrist was hacked open (which means, as everyone knows by now, getting sent to the hospital for an operation)…on the other hand, he was glad it wasn't his left wrist.

"H-How did they do that, Sly?" the dusty gold tiger asked, obviously bewildered with how they could do that. The answer was awful.

Sly locked eyes with the asymmetric stare of his cousin's eyes and glimpsed sleepily over at the boomerang he had with him—it was the tip of that Disruptorang prototype he'd been slaving over for weeks on end. If it was enough to slice into Sly's wrist then this definitely wasn't meant for rash individuals, like frills.

"Vite, you back here?" Ty's voice ricocheted off the walls of their little space. The golden tiger vaulted around the corner and froze at what he saw. He walked forward and knelt before the two. "What happened here?"

The middle eldest hit the palm of his hand with his fist and threw his fist over his shoulder—great, he was using Terra's sign language. "_That_ is what happened," Vite said vocally. Then they both exchanged a glance toward each other, the same thought going through their heads. Unfortunately, it also went through Sly's head too.

"No, I'm not going to the hospital!" the ruddy tiger persisted. Understandably, Vite wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Listen, it's either that or spill blood all over the place. In my opinion, I fancy the medical wing better than the second option."

The eldest of the three cringed in alarm, then in displeasure. This was not going to end his way, was it?

…

If anybody, Cass's goons had it their way today, actually. They'd robbed the university blind but only took an old artefact from the archaeology department…a strange looking artefact with Quinkan carvings.

Cass is planning something…

But, at this time, that wasn't the top priority on Ty and Vite's minds.

_If only he hadn't broken away__,_ was what was plaguing their minds right now.

…

**I did initially intend to weave a song through this chapter, but I didn't know all the lyrics to the song (Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson)****.**

**Just a chapter of Vite reflecting on the day and freaking out about Sly. Not my greatest, but at least it's up. **

**This has been the sixth theme of the 100 Themes Challenge—stay tuned for more! **


End file.
